Google is undoubtedly one of the largest companies in the world. Millions of people use Google every day for many different services such as emails, cloud storage, and GPS (just to name a few). However, did you know that Google offers over 60 services for free to anyone with a Gmail account? Today I’m going to be talking about some of the less popular yet extremely useful services offered by Google, with all of these services being free to use!
Google Docs/Google Slides
Google Docs and Google Slides are services that allow you to arrange, edit, and share documents and/or presentations wherever you are. These services are linked with your Gmail account and get saved automatically to your Google Drive as you or other group members work on them. No more forgetting to save, or worrying about one group member, laptop, or thumb drive having all your project information where you can’t get to it. Google Docs and Google Slides are also compatible with Microsoft Word and PowerPoint respectively; however, you may run into some formatting issues from transferring files between each platform. Nevertheless, these services work smoothly with other Google services, making them great tools for students and educators alike.
https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/ / https://docs.google.com/presentation/u/0/
Blogger
Blogger is an incredible service from Google that allows for those with even the most rudimentary design skills to create a unique and beautiful blog. Google’s easy to use templates allow for complete customization down to the smallest detail to ensure that your blog looks and feels exactly how you want it. Adding to the abundant services from Google, Blogger provides you a free blogspot.com domain to start off your web page. For me personally, Blogger serves as a great way to create a stunning online portfolio that can be added to my LinkedIn profile and all other social media accounts. If that wasn’t awesome enough, Google allows for AdSense to be displayed on Blogger as well, so if your blog gets enough web traffic, you can earn money from your content through Ad revenue.
https://www.blogger.com/about/
Google Classroom
Google classroom is designed to help educators streamline course curriculums by placing assignments, quizzes, and gradebooks all in one place. Since Google Classroom is linked with other Google services, it makes it easier than ever to link videos and other learning materials to the assignments. Furthermore, teachers can quickly give and receive feedback about class content, improving the overall education experience for everyone involved. Even though Google Classroom is designed for educators, it’s also useful for mentors or people in leadership positions. As a team mentor, I value the extreme usefulness and ease of Google Classroom as a means of consolidating and refining the learning process.
https://classroom.google.com/h
Google Scholar
Google Scholar is a specialized search engine which provides a simple way to search for scholarly literature, including articles, books, and abstracts. From a student’s perspective, this tool is incredibly helpful when working on important research papers and projects. In addition, you can create a library of favorited works to save for lengthier projects that take more than one work session. The best part about Google Scholar, however, is the browser extension. This puts a mini Google Scholar search bar at the top of your Google chrome window for quick and easy searches. Check out the link below to try it out for yourself!
https://scholar.google.com/schhp?hl=en-US
Google is a company committed to innovation and improving people’s lives. Many of their services are free, and the ones that aren’t are at decent prices for incredible services. I encourage everyone who wishes to increase their productivity to explore Google services and try them out for yourself. For the complete list of all the services Google offers, check out the link below.
https://about.google/intl/en/products/?tab=rh&tip=undo-send